Last night’s football game between the Oklahoma State Cowboys and the Texas A & M Aggies was bizarre.  It was mayhem.  The players and the fans alike, on both sides, went through an emotional roller coaster and the ride ended somewhere in the Tricky Hall of Mirrors…people were still reaching out to test reality as they led themselves out of the stadium. Confused, elated, exhausted…or in the Aggies’ case, beaten.  And in the Cowboys’ case – at least this time – celebrating.

As I was riding home last night I started thinking about the superheros who  contributed to the OSU win.  I think the tuba section in the band gets at least one vote; they took the Three Dog Night hit, Never Been to Spain (You know… “I’ve never been to heaven, but I’ve been to Oklahoma; Oh they tell me I was born there…), two extra verses during a national TV timeout and had most everyone in the audience singing along by the time they finished.

The players get three votes.  One lost the rest of the season to a knee injury.  One played on no sleep because his baby girl was in the hospital the night before.  The defense probably gets four votes because they played against 106 snaps…the game was an extra-long grueling mess for those boys.  But this morning, when I think back to what helped me get through the game, five personal votes go to the kid in the orange cape.

I’ve seen him there before.  He’s the kid who sends his eyeglasses into all sorts of contortions by sticking both fingers in his ears when Pistol Pete shoots his shotgun before the game.  Obviously he doesn’t like loud noises.  But last night I think he saved my husband from at least two cases of hyperventilation and possibly one cardiac arrest by just doing what he did all night long.  The kid pretend-flew.  He twirled around and around.  And around some more.  Sometimes he leaned over the handrails and actually watched the game.  And, he ran up and down the stairs so that his cape would go flying behind him like a big orange banner.

The kid was Super Cool.

Nothing phased him.  And he completely distracted the convulsing adult fan base at just the right times.  Last night he was my hero, and this morning I’m giving him my Friday morning post.

Here’s to you, Super Cool.  May the wind beneath your cape take you around your pretend world over and over again.